Preview: Easy game for New Zealand at new-Wankhede’s debut

By Suneer Chowdhary

 

If one would have written about this game at the start of the tournament, one could have given Canada an outside hope of a dramatic upset that each World Cup usually has. New Zealand had come into the competition with a home-series loss to Pakistan, which had been preceded by a stretch of 12 straight losses in the sub-continent.

By Suneer Chowdhary

 

Mumbai: Mar 12, 2011

 

If one would have written about this game at the start of the tournament, one could have given Canada an outside hope of a dramatic upset that each World Cup usually has. New Zealand had come into the competition with a home-series loss to Pakistan, which had been preceded by a stretch of 12 straight losses in the sub-continent.

 

Four games into the World Cup and New Zealand seems to be partially getting its bearings right. They were blown away by Australia alright but in the other three games, New Zealand have been dominating like never before in the last 12 months or so. Kenya and Zimbabwe were handed over a ten-wicket drubbing while Pakistan were stunned by a batting performance that would have left the best of oppositions in a tizzy.

 

The issues leading up to the World Cup, which, for now seem to have gone away have been to do with the batting. That is a surprise given the presence of four decently high-quality batsmen at the top in Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor. The form of McCullum and Taylor was of concern but in the last few games, the two have shown signs of living up to their talent.

 

What this translates for Canada is that they will be up against an opponent which will be a harder nut to crack than what one would have imagined at the start of the World Cup. Especially given Canada’s own issues with their batting and the inexperience in bowling.

 

Looking at the way that Canada played in their opening games, one got the sense that there was over-dependence on John Davison. Davison looked like a fish out of water at the top of the innings and it was only in their fourth game that he was sent down and replaced by Rizwan Cheema as the opener. The same tactic will be used for this game as well, to reduce the pressure from Davison’s back and allow Cheema the chance to take advantage of the first Powerplay.

 

It will obviously be different facing up to the bowling of Hamish Bennett – who should make it to the playing 11 in place of the injured Daniel Vettori – Kyle Mills and Tim Southee, not to forget Jacob Oram. The seam bowlers will be able to get the ball to bounce more than what Kenya could and it would be a challenge for the Canadian batting.

 

Lest one forgets, this is also the first game that the much-vaunted newly-reconstructed Wankhede Stadium at Mumbai will host in the tournament. One wouldn’t be surprised if the atmosphere remains missing from this one given the teams involved in the game but the unveiling of the stadium will be one of the highlights of the game.

 

Teams

New Zealand (Probable):Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum (c), Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor (c), Scott Styris, James Franklin, Nathan McCullum, Jacob Oram, Kyle Mills, Time Southee, Hamish Bennett.

 

Canada (Probable): Ruvindu Gunasekera, Rizwan Cheema, Zubin Surkari, Ashish Bagai (c & w), Jimmy Hansra, Tyson Gordon, John Davison, Henry Osinde, Harvir Baidwan, Balaji Rao, Prath Desai.

 

Umpires: Bruce Oxenford (Australia) and Shavir Tarapore (India).

 

Time: 14.30 hours local (09.00 GMT)

 

(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here: @suneerchowdhary)

 

Pictures © Getty Images



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